Wednesday, February 08, 2006

New Column: Malevolent Effervescence

Here I am, explaining Muslim rage and how it connects the Hamas victory to the Danish cartoons: Malevolent Effervescence. Plus, I am going to activate the comments section. Just to let you know, though, that anything short of fawning sycophancy towards my person shall be deleted. So, behave.

I agree with some of your column and would just add the idea that when one feels threatened, one will turn instinctively to the party who one feels will fight back. Thus 9/11 secured Bush and Republican victories, because Americans intrinsically feel that Republicans fight back while Democrats cower. This is an emotional thing, not a reasoned one. One has to remember that the foundations of American public support for the Iraq invasion were based on a sort of inchoate desire to hit back against jihadism through military action in the Middle East, not through any special desire to liberate the Iraqi people or even the fake WMD threat.

Needless to say, secular Arab liberals and secular Arab governments, who represent cowardly surrender and corruption/incompetence/treachery respectively to the Arab Muslim man on the street, stand no chance compared to bin Laden, Zarqawi, etc. Even those who disagree with their tactics (just as some Americans and Republicans disagree with warrantless wiretapping and torture) can't say that those guys won't fight the Westerners who represent the "threat" to Arabs.

The major problem is the sense that the West represents a threat to Islamic civilization, or at least major currents of it. Not quite sure how to solve this, since it pretty much does. Perhaps another Karen Hughes listening tour?

Thanks for directing me to this. Interesting angle but am not sure the issue is one of vengeance as it is to one of entitlement. I direct you to this comment on Aqoul

'The complicating and disturbing factor from what I have witnessed fo far seems to be that there is a deeper cultural inferiority complex at play. Historically it was the duty of Muslims to invade non-Muslim lands if they refuse to embrace Islam and also refuse to become ahl dhimma, ie continue to practice their religions while agreeing to live under an Islamic government and paying a jizya ( a tax paid by non-Muslims to their Muslim government). At the risk of becoming too historical, (yes I do know that the jihad ayas were recalled) it is my view that the entire premise of non-acceptance of secular liberal law is that Muslims generally still have a belief that the dhimmi position was never meant to apply to them and that historically and doctrinally it should be the inverse if one harks back to the days when Islam was at its zenith. Hence my previous points re cultural arrogance. A loose fundamental simplistic world view is that the earth is Allah's and that Muslims have a duty to propagate his rule. While sitting back and barely coexisitng in a non-Muslim society is just about palatable, sitting back and seeing as they believe it, their holy duty of annexing non-Muslim lands so blatantly declared a failure strikes at the very heart of the Islamic and Arab world's insecurity regarding the complacency of Muslims today and further enhances the view that something must be done. This sense of falling short of civilisational heritage in my view is the provenance of such over-compensatory reactions.'

http://www.aqoul.com/archives/2006/02/background_stor_1.php

The effervescence is the same however although I do believe the malevolent desire to subjugate the West is part of the feeling of loss of stature that Muslims feel. Yes I do agree with you it is disturbing and more sinister than it is reactionary and it is useful to judge the response to the cartoons in such a context.

Robert--you've been a great support, and I appreciate all your help and kind words.

tequila--it can be represented as a threat is the Muslim world wanted to deal on an equal footing with the rest of the world, which is not the case, see what meph wrote.

meph--I agree that what you suggest probably animated the Young Ottomans, and then later the Young Turks, as well as early Arab nationalism and the Turkish war of independence...but since all those efforts ended in failure, I believe that jihadism has become a manifestation of getting back at the West at any cost, no matter how immoral or unpractical that is.

madtom--Sure, that is within your rights...But let me exercise my own right, as Blog-Master, in practicing the tyranny of narrow-mindedness...Enjoy!

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